|
|
|
User Rank: Beginner
Joined: 8/9/2010
Posts: 11
|
| #1 | |
Posted:
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 5:01 AM | |
For the second time in the 10 years I have been struggling to research my husband's Scranton / County Mayo ancestors I have sent a letter to a total stranger who happens to have the same surname I am researching and who lives in the same area as the ancestors did 150 years ago and it has paid off! I highly recommend it though it wouldn't work with a name that is very common in the area.
The first time I wrote to a McGreevy who still lived in the right townland in Addergoole Parish, and he called me on the phone the same week and happily gave me a lot of information and we are friends with his daughters on Facebook now, who are my husband's 3rd cousins.
Just recently I wrote to a Willis who (I thought) still lived in the Hollymount area in the parish of Robeen, and I just got a very exciting e-mail from his daughter who says her father has passed on unfortunately but she knows all about the family back to 1792! I get way more excited about these things than my husband does, but even he will be happy about this one. Especially since it only cost the postage to Ireland!
|
|
|
User Rank: Beginner
Joined: 8/9/2010
Posts: 11
|
| #2 | |
Posted:
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 5:25 PM |
I am finally making huge progress on the Willises, and all the fragments of information I have collected over the last decade are now coalescing into individual lives and complete families. I have been able to "merge merge merge" Willises. (Though the warning to back up your file before you merge people makes me nervous.) I have gone from about 15 Thomas Willises to about eight. The reduction in Williams and Margarets is also remarkable. And I am able to help my new-found fourth cousin in law with U.S. info so it's a fair exchange.
|
|
|
User Rank: Beginner
Joined: 8/9/2010
Posts: 1
|
| #3 | |
Posted:
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 6:49 AM |
Jennifer, where did you get the address to send the letter too.-sally
|
|